5 comments:

Unless it has serious problems inside, $1 is a steal. Even if you have to put $10-$20k in it, if you can sell it for $180k that's a great profit margin.

There's a house I've got my eye on, it's "only" been on the market for six months and is now listed with land contract terms available. It wouldn't have worked for us but if it ever goes on sale for $1 I'd buy it and rehab it for a rental.

This one was bought for $1 by the Center for Great Neighborhoods in Covington, the same folks who just completed the $180K around the corner. They do BEAUTIFUL work. (In fact, when we were just starting on our trim, we peeked through the windows of another one of their projects, snapped photos, and totally stole their trim configurations!)

The city plans on investing about $100K into the rehab, (labor and materials) then selling it for an $80K profit. Not a bad return on investment for a year's worth of work.

I am excited to read your blog. Live in CVG. I must protest the Center for Great Neighborhoods on econo-poliical grounds. As an MBA you should know that the 'returns on investment' are bogus.Thanks for sharing your struggle.I assume that at 1886 +/- you are down on the river; we are in mid-town around 12th street, 1900 +/-. I love this town. Only the Rhineland across the water could get me to move.I always laugh when I read about Cinti 's struggles to get some post-8PM foot-traffic. Where I live the foot traffic is constant - 24/7. (After living in the suburbs where I was attacked for walking my dogs, the odd encounter with those needing a cigarette or some change is small beer.)

Sam, having two MBAs, I should know that if someone bought the house for a dollar, their return on investment is not going to be 'bogus'. Not sure where you were trying to get with that one.

That said, anyone who buys a house these days looking for investment profits had better have ties with a developer with deep pockets, or have a longer-term vision than most.

I for one, am very thankful to the Center for Great Neighborhoods here in Covington. They seem to have acquired the talent, the will and the motivation that many appear to have lost where it comes to making real developmental change. Of course, my goals are selfish in that I want my neighborhood to thrive and grow, as well as be a safe place to come home to. TCFGN is making that happen where others have failed.

Let me reiterate, because, after some thought, I think I know where Sam was trying to go.... and that is this: I don't give a half cent for what that dumbarse Susan Orman says; A house is not an investment. If you are treating it like one, you will likely lose money. Like most investors, you will probably sell it when you are desperate to sell at the low in the Market, and you will likely buy at top dollar at the peak of the housing Market.

Corollary: I am so tired of people complaining about the lost value in their homes over the past few years. Unless you are actively trying to SELL your home right now, its current value to SOMEONE ELSE is IRRELEVANT. What do YOU value your house at? If you still live there, THAT is its current value. Period.

Home Sweet

Home Sweet... um... HOME!

(it may need more paint, some trim, and the wrought iron fence installed, but it's no longer "Home Sweet Derelict")

We've been happily married since 2003, together since 2000, and we thought to ourselves, "Hey, let's test the limits of our relationship!" So we're in the process of totally rehabbing an uninhabitable 1868 brick home in Covington Kentucky, for better or for worse, richer or poorer, until one of us kills the other one -- or the renovation project gets finished, of course.

This is our chronicle of our journey into rehabbing/renovation. This blog will hopefully prove to be a resource or even a DIY "renovators' manual" for those who come after us.

Our backgrounds:

She is a creative MBA who got the entrepreneurial bug in 2000, and joined her yet-to-be husband in business. While she has always been handy and crafty, Wife has no professional experience in any of the building trades, nor did any of her immediate family.

He is a long time entrepreneur and newsletter publisher. Not particularly crafty, Husband is reasonably handy and prior to this has had some experience doing stone work, repairing and rebuilding decks and doing smaller repair projects around the house.

In other words, we're rank amateurs figuring this stuff out as we go along.